Photo: Megan Stearman
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — After seeing its nine-game winning streak snapped Thursday night at LA Tech, WKU gets right back to action Saturday evening at 5:00 (CT) at Southern Miss.
The Hilltoppers lost for the first time since Christmas Thursday night but remain in a tie for first place with the Bulldogs as the conference season hits its halfway point on Saturday.
WKU is in the midst of finishing the league schedule with seven of the final 11 games away from home, and WKU is 4-4 so far this year away from E.A. Diddle Arena.
WKU and Southern Miss are meeting for the first time as Conference USA foes, but the two have played five times in history with WKU winning four, including last season in Bowling Green in the second year of a home-and-home series, 68-65. Southern Miss went 29-7 a season ago and was tied for first in Conference USA at 13-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT, but the Golden Eagles do not return any starters in 2014-15 under first-year head coach Doc Sadler.
On Saturday, WKU redshirt-senior Trency Jackson is playing just 90 miles from his home in Jackson, Miss.
Following the game at Southern Miss, WKU hosts North Texas and Rice in two conference matchups next week at E.A. Diddle Arena.
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GAME 21
WKU (14-6, 7-1 C-USA) at Southern Miss (6-13, 1-7 C-USA)
January 31, 2015 | 5:00 PM (CT)
Hattiesburg, Miss. | Reed Green Coliseum (8,095)
QUICK SHOTS
– A win Saturday would give WKU 15 wins by the end of January for the first time in the last six seasons since 2007-08.
– WKU has lost back-to-back games just four times over the last two seasons.
– All six of WKU’s losses this season have come when committing more turnovers than the opponent.
– WKU is 13-3 in the last two Januarys and has won 11 of the last 12 contests in the month.
– WKU leads C-USA and ranks 49th in the nation in assists per game (14.9), and the Hilltoppers rank 39th in the nation in three-pointers per game (8.0).
– The Hilltoppers are averaging 11.3 turnovers per conference game, compared to 14.4 in its 12 non-conference outings.
– George Fant is averaging 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds over two career games against Southern Miss, and T.J. Price had 15 points in last year’s meeting with the Golden Eagles.
– George Fant enters Saturday’s game four rebounds shy of 800 for his career.
– George Fant has scored in double figures in 10-straight games.
– T.J. Price has hit multiple three-pointers in eight of the last nine games.
– T.J. Price’s scoring average of 17.1 points per game would be the most by a Hilltopper at the end of the season since Courtney Lee averaged 20.4 as a senior in 2007-08, and George Fant’s rebounding average of 8.5 per game would be the most since Juan Pattillo had 9.1 as a senior in 2010-11.
– T.J. Price leads C-USA and ranks 10th in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.455), and George Fant leads the league and is 19th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game (3.6).
– Chris Harrison-Docks has made 47 of his last 58 free throw attempts (.810) going back to the end of last season, where he finished third in the nation among freshman from the charity stripe.
– T.J. Price ranks eighth among active NCAA Division I players in career three-point field goals made (261), 28th in career points scored (1,577) and 74th in career scoring average (14.0), and George Fant ranks 16th in career rebounds (796) and 54th in career points scored (1,457).
– WKU has won 16 of its last 19 regular-season home games, and the Hilltoppers are 39-11 at E.A. Diddle Arena under head coach Ray Harper (.780).
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